$250,000 Bond – No Chance for Release for Mt. Sentinel Attacker

37 year-old Jared Kuntz, the man accused of brutally beating a young mother on the ‘M’ Trail, as well as attacking and injuring two other men, appeared via video on Monday in Missoula Justice Court before Judge Alex Beal.

After detailing the charges, including assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and assault on a minor, Judge Beal asked Deputy County Attorney Carrie Garber for a bail argument.

“This incident involved attacks on people he did not even know on the ‘M’ Trail,” began Garber, “He first attacked a woman and seriously injured her, fracturing her face and skull. She was with her 13 year-old son who looked back when he heard his mother scream and saw the defendant with blood on his hands. The defendant is alleged to have come after the youth and was heard to have said something like ‘you better run’. The victim, a young woman, is badly injured your honor.”

Garber went on to detail the second attack on a pair of brothers higher up on the mountain later that afternoon.

“A couple of hours later in that same vicinity the defendant attacked two brothers and the defendant was completely naked at the time,” she said. “He threw a rock at one of the brothers injuring his back, and then viciously attacked the other brother and while they were literally rolling around on the trail, he was stabbed twice by the person he was attacking, who stabbed him in self defense.”

Garber told the judge that Kuntz has a long history of arrests and convictions.

“In addition to just the raw and shocking and violent unprovoked nature of the attacks on these strangers, the defendant has a criminal history that includes convictions for burglary here in Missoula, felony criminal mischief, a conviction for intimidation in Gallatin County and a conviction for felony burglary for which he received 20 years in prison with 15 suspended in March of 2019, and that was the sentence for which he was on conditional release.”

The public defender asked that Kuntz be released on his own recognizance into the pretrial supervision program, but Deputy Attorney Garber asked Judge Beal for bond of $250,000.

Beal, acknowledging that due to the previous charges, convictions and the sentences imposed that Kuntz would ever be released from custody, set bond for the new offenses at $250,000.

Kuntz is scheduled to make his first appearance on these new charges in Missoula District Court on May 4.

The female victim was flown to Salt Lake City for treatment of her serious injuries and a Go Fund Me account has been set up in her name.